What's the Real Story Behind Karl Rove's Divorce?

As we ring in the New Year, and temperatures dip in many parts of the country, progressives could use a delicious thought to warm their cockles.

We have just the ticket. Imagine this: What if there is a connection between the announcement of Karl Rove's divorce and the recent discovery of 22 million missing e-mails from the Bush White House?

What if those missing e-mails provide a paper trail that prove Rove was behind efforts to use the U.S. Department of Justice as a political weapon? What if the Rove inner circle now knows that hard evidence exists to prove he was behind numerous criminal actions in the Bush administration?

News reports about the Rove divorce have been spotty. No one reported on the divorce until it had already been granted, which indicates the court file must have been sealed for some reason. I've seen no indication that anyone in the press has seen the divorce complaint. It isn't even clear who filed for divorce--Rove or his wife, Darby?

Is this part of a pattern of special treatment for Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove? If you or I were involved in a divorce, the records would be public; not for King Karl. If you or I had abused the U.S. constitution and caused innocent people to be wrongly incarcerated, we would have been wearing orange jump suits a long time ago; not King Karl. If you or I were called to testify before Congress, it would be under oath and in public; not for King Karl.

But maybe Turd Blossom's luck is about to run out. We learn about discovery of the missing Bush e-mails on December 14. We learn about Rove's divorce on December 29.

Curious timing.

Darby Hickson Rove is an Alabama girl. And we don't grow no stupid girls down here in Alabama.

Could our gal Darby be thinking: "You know, it sounds like these new e-mails might be enough to send Tur . . . I mean my beloved husband . . . up the river to some pound-me-in-the-ass prison. (Tip of the hat to a film classic, Office Space.) I think it might be time to hit the exits, with a substantial sum of hush money in hand."

The Web already is aflutter with speculation that the divorce could mean Rove will finally hook up with GOP gay hunk Jeff Gannon.

A Rove-Gannon connection certainly is titillating, and it recalls this classic piece of reporting from Dotty Lynch of CBS News.

But the thought that White House e-mails might provide a damning paper trail on King Karl . . . well, that has to be my favorite angle.

Is this all wishful thinking on my part? Probably. But hey, it's almost New Year's Day, and a guy is entitled to dream a little at this time of year.

Karl Rove in a pound-me-in-the-ass prison? Now there's a thought to warm the spirits.

Almost makes me feel like Homer Simpson, thinking about a donut. "Ummm . . . donut . . . "

Steve McNair Shooting: Focusing on a Sleazy Lawyer With GOP Ties

Adrian Gilliam, the convicted murderer who sold the gun that was used to kill former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, recently was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

Our research indicates Gilliam would have been a whole lot better off if a lawyer had been involved in the transaction that led to McNair's death. In fact, based on an Alabama case from several years ago, Gilliam might not have been scrutinized at all if he had thought to get a politically connected lawyer involved.

In the McNair case, Gilliam pleaded guilty to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. In the Alabama case, a convicted felon named Don Weiffenbach used a pistol to shoot a man named Lawrence Weems 11 times after a confrontation outside Weems' home in Trussville.

Weiffenbach had been hired as a private investigator in a divorce case involving Weems and his then wife, Beverly. Who hired Weiffenbach? Beverly Weems and her attorney--William E. Swatek.

We have written extensively about Bill Swatek's ties to our Legal Schnauzer story--and his 30-year record of unethical practices as a lawyer. We also have written about Swatek's family ties to local and national GOP "royalty."

It's undisputed that Don Weiffenbach, who is now deceased, had a felony conviction from Arizona--and he was in possession of a firearm that he used to shoot Larry Weems 11 times. But did federal authorities take any action against Weiffenbach following the Weems shooting? We can see no indication in court records that they did.

Is that because Bill Swatek helped Weiffenbach obtain the pistol, and law enforcement didn't go after a convicted felon who was likely to finger a lawyer? Based on a lawsuit that Larry Weems filed after he somehow recovered from the shooting, the answer appears to be yes.

Here's how we reported on the case in an earlier post:

Larry Weems alleged in a lawsuit that Swatek helped Weiffenbach obtain a pistol permit in Shelby County after he had been denied in Jefferson County because of the felony conviction. . . .

What happened in the aftermath of the shooting? Larry Weems filed lawsuits against Shelby County and the City of Trussville. His lawsuit for negligent hiring and supervision against Swatek and Beverly Weems generated enough documents to fill several large folders at the Jefferson County Courthouse.

Larry Weems says that depositions in the case present compelling evidence that Swatek was at least partly responsible for Weiffenbach obtaining a pistol permit in Shelby County. Not long after the shooting, Swatek sold his house to his wife and put it in her name, according to Shelby County probate records.

Did Larry Weems receive justice in the lawsuit against Swatek? Not exactly. In fact, court documents indicate the Alabama legal community joined forces to protect one of its sleaziest practitioners:

Weems' lawsuit dragged on for years before eventually losing steam and being dismissed--for reasons that are hard to determine from viewing the case file.

Was the lawsuit dismissed mainly because Weems had a member of the Birmingham legal community in the crosshairs? Did the "justice" community rally to dismiss Weems' lawsuit, not based on the facts and law, but based on the need to protect one of its own?

Consider this: Weems says he filed a criminal complaint with the Birmingham office of the FBI, and nothing was done about it. He filed a complaint against Swatek with the Alabama State Bar, and it was not investigated--even though Swatek had been disciplined three times previously by the state bar, including a suspension of his license.

The bottom line? Weiffenbach moved to Florida, where he died a few years ago. Swatek still is practicing law and has been a central character in our tale of legal skulduggery. To my knowledge, he never has paid Larry Weems one cent.

Here's a lesson for Adrian Gilliam and folks like him: If you are a convicted felon and you want to possess a firearm, make sure a lawyer is somehow connected to the deal. You will greatly enhance your chances of getting away with a crime.

Debt Collectors Face Lawsuit After Florida Man's Death

A woman in Tampa, Florida, is suing debt collectors for contributing to her husband's heart-related death.

Dianne McLeod is suing Green Tree Servicing for the wrongful death of her husband, Stanley, who died in 2005 after a series of heart problems.

Mrs. McLeod says debt collectors repeatedly violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and the resulting stress led to her husband's death.

The McLeod story hit quite a nerve here at Legal Schnauzer. My wife and I have been subject to blatant unlawful actions from debt collectors. This has caused enormous stress, but so far, our health seems to be holding up. But what if that changes. What if Mrs. Schnauzer has a stroke? What if I have a heart attack?

And what about the abuse we've taken from corrupt members of the Alabama State Bar over the past eight or nine years? I know we enjoyed generally good health when our legal nightmare started in 2000 and 2001. What are the cumulative health effects of being repeatedly cheated in court? If a researcher wanted to examine that question, we could be guinea pigs A and B.

I've already told Mrs. Schnauzer, "If I keel over someday soon, here are the people you need to sue for every penny they are worth." And I wasn't joking.

I'm also not joking about the deleterious effects unethical debt collectors can have on your life. We've already written that Mrs. Schnauzer thinks she was recently cheated out of her job at Infinity Property & Casualty Corporation because of a lawsuit we've filed against two debt-collection outfits--NCO and the Birmingham law firm of Ingram & Associates. In fact, she testified to that effect under oath in a recent deposition.

Mrs. Schnauzer wasn't just blowing off steam. We've uncovered evidence that Lloyd Gray & Whitehead, a Birmingham firm defending NCO, has substantial ties to Infinity Property & Casualty. We've also discovered that at least one very close associate of Alabama Governor Bob Riley--a target of frequent critical coverage here at Legal Schnauzer--resides on Infinity's Board of Directors. (Much more on all of this coming soon.)

Finally, new evidence indicates that even my unlawful termination, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), might have been driven, at least partially, by Ingram & Associates' and NCO's efforts to collect a debt we allegedly owed to American Express. (Much more on that coming, too.)

As for Dianne McLeod, does she have a legitimate lawsuit? Time will tell. But our Legal Schnauzer team hopes she brings Green Tree Servicing to its ugly knees.

Just how bad are some debt collectors? Consider this from a CNN article about the McLeod case:

Billy Howard is an attorney who runs the Consumer Protection Division for Morgan & Morgan. Howard represents McLeod and has about 500 similar cases against companies who use what he called "Tony Soprano tactics," a reference to the fictional organized crime leader who was the central character in the HBO drama "The Sopranos."

"I think it's frightening because these companies go after people and they utilize tactics people just don't know are illegal," Howard said.

"Scare tactics work. They've worked for years. That's how the mafia made so much money. That's how these mafia-like tactics result in so much money. People are scared," he said.

Howard says one of his other clients had this message waiting on the answering machine:

"You're a piece of s---. That's why you turned your phone off. Mother f-----. But that's OK.

"You haven't heard the last of me. But if it takes me a year or takes me two, believe me, I will find you. You better move. But if you move, you better move to California, 'cause I do travel. And I like traveling. Goodbye."

And then there was this one:

"When I see you. I'm gonna f--- you up. I want my money, and I want it now. I hate people who lie to me and abuse my company. ... If you bring my money back, you don't have to worry about me, just disregard my message."

We have not received those kinds of physical threats. But in some ways, we were treated even worse than this. There's little doubt that Mrs. Schnauzer was cheated out of her job because we chose to fight back against corrupt debt collectors. Now, we are seeing more and more signs that I might have lost my job largely because of debt collectors, too.

How low will debt collectors go? They seem to have a bottomless pit of sleazy tactics. We will be following the Dianne McLeod case. And we soon will be going into detail about what we've experienced from the classy crowd at NCO and Ingram & Associates.

Alabama Judge Packs Heat on the Bench

An Alabama judge comes to court with more than a robe and legal papers these days. The judge also brings a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Special.

And we're not talking about a right-wing, whack-job guy who presides over a court in the sticks.

We're talking about Suzanne Childers, who hears domestic-relations cases in Jefferson County, home to Alabama's largest city (Birmingham). Childers, by the way, is a Democrat who has shown no signs of being a gun-loving fruit loop.

In fact, our sources say Childers is far and away the best domestic-relations judge in Jefferson County, which might not be saying much. One of Childers' colleagues, Ralph A. "Sonny" Ferguson, is a hideously bad judge and has been the subject of coverage at Legal Schnauzer. (See here and here.)

Our sources say there is a pretty good chance of receiving justice when your case is before Childers, mainly because she does not play favorites with certain Birmingham law firms--something Ferguson is notorious for doing. (Much more on that coming soon.)

Childers only became concerned about security after a financial crisis caused the county to lay off 46 sheriff deputies. Domestic-relations court, where contested divorces are heard, went from having two deputies to none.

After Childers became afraid for the safety of two female attorneys in her courtroom--and officers took 40 minutes to respond to her panic call--she decided to get qualified to bring a gun to court.

An expert says the public usually does not become concerned about court security until there is an incident. But Childers says, once an incident has taken place, it's too late. Writes The Birmingham News:

"We need some help," (Childers) said. "I am just really concerned that someone is going to get hurt in my courthouse because, I hate to say it, but it's an angry courthouse. Every day people come to court, someone is angry at someone else."

Childers makes a good point. All courthouses can be angry places. After all, that's where people go to have disputes heard. Certainly, the parties are at fault in some cases. But it doesn't help when our justice system is permeated with corrupt judges.

Some litigants might be particularly edgy in Childers' courtroom because they've heard about Jefferson County's richly-deserved reputation for corruption in domestic-relations court--a reputation driven largely by Judge Ferguson.

Corruption, and angry litigants, are hardly limited to domestic-relations cases. As we've reported here at Legal Schnauzer, we've had firsthand experience with at least two Jefferson County judges--Allwin Horn and Robert Vance Jr.--who are demonstrably corrupt.

And don't even get us started on Shelby County, where the whole bench seems to be a cesspool. We know for sure that J. Michael Joiner, G. Dan Reeves, and Ron Jackson are crooks. And since Joiner is the presiding judge, it's hard to imagine that there is an honest arbiter anywhere near the Shelby County Courthouse.

It's too bad that Suzanne Childers feels she has to take courtroom security into her own hands. Our guess is that she realizes the problems in Alabama courts go way beyond a shortage of deputies.

Four-Legged Friends Help Make a Merry Christmas

It's too warm in Birmingham today to rev up the fireplace. But if it were cold enough to have a fire burning, our boy Baxter would be recreating this scene in our living room:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This is a scene from our home on Christmas morning--and on every morning when we are late getting up to feed Baxter and his Tonkinese sister, Chloe, their breakfast "noms."


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

It wouldn't be Christmas without a return visit from one of our favorite "interest groups"--"The Holiday Dogs of Hungary." We featured them last year on Christmas day, and now they are back by popular demand.

Merry Christmas!

The Parker Griffith Story Takes Some Curious Turns

The story of U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) and his switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party continues to evolve, with political intrigue brewing on several fronts.

Perhaps our favorite part of the story is that it inspired one of the most insightful statements about modern conservatism that we've ever read.

More on that in a moment. But first, let's examine the latest news on the Griffith front. Reporter Patricia C. McCarter of The Huntsville Times provides a solid overview. Here are some highlights:

* The Alabama Democratic Party (ADC) accused Main Street Strategies, Griffith's political-consulting firm, of downloading the party's voter identification data in the "wee hours" before Griffith changed parties. Here is the official ADC release, and Raw Story has a splendid overview piece on the controversy.

* Griffith said he did not commission a poll to determine his electability as a Democrat. But that contradicts a Congressional Quarterly report that said Griffith's office confirmed he did commission a poll.

* Griffith's press secretary, Sean Magers, resigned.

* Griffith predicted that he would be a presence on congressional committees, but he could not point to any agreement he has with Republicans regarding committee assignments.

Is Parker Griffith a two-faced phony? Raw Story found evidence that the answer is yes, considering that Griffith cited his opposition to health-care reform as a prime reason for leaving the Democratic Party. Reports Raw Story:

David Weigel at the Washington Independent notes that Griffith's denouncement of the health care reform effort doesn't jibe with his pro-health reform track record. Greg Sargent catches a May 2006 interview with then-State Senator Parker Griffith in which he refers to himself as a “life-long” Democrat and a supporter of “health care for all of the citizens.”

Perhaps most importantly, we will be eternally grateful for Griffith's party switch because it inspired some brilliant writing from "DavidNYC" of Daily Kos.

In a diary titled "AL--05: Parker Griffith Can Lose," "DavidNYC" writes:

It's important to remember that to remain a member in good standing of the conservative movement, it isn't enough just to vote a certain way. You have to evidence a very particular tribal belonging - you need to hate the right people, be ignorant of the right facts, be fearful of the right bogeymen, and be arrogant about the whole enterprise. If you somehow fail this tribal litmus test, it doesn't matter how right-wing you are.

Talk about cutting to the chase. We raised the issue of American tribalism, and the dangers it presents, in a post the day after the November 2008 elections. We even noted the irony that we are fighting wars in two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, that are dysfunctional largely because of tribalism.

It took us more than a dozen paragraphs to make our point. But "DavidNYC" gets right to the ugly truth about conservatism in three short sentences.

Brilliant stuff. Thank you, Parker Griffith.

A Holiday Gift: The Song and Dance of Sacred Heart

If our Legal Schnauzer team could be granted one broad wish as the holidays approach, it probably would be that our readers (and non-readers, for that matter) receive the gifts of humor and insight in 2010.

As regular readers know, 2009 has not been an easy time in our household. Mrs. Schnauzer and I are both now unemployed, cheated out of our jobs--at Infinity Property & Casualty and UAB, respectively--by an apparent combination of political/corporate interests. That's not fun at any time, and it certainly is stressful in the midst of the worst U.S. economy since the Great Depression.

On a positive note, 2009 marked our 20th anniversary--as a married couple, not as a blog team. Sometimes I wonder how we made it this far, given that God apparently has seen fit to confront us with an unusually large number of evil SOBs over the past 10 years or so.

But we've hung in there, and perhaps even grown stronger. One reason, I suspect, is that we are able to help each other laugh and help each other think. In other words, we somehow have been able to give each other the gifts of humor and insight. And we hope, in some small way, this blog has helped provide those gifts to our readers.

One source of humor and insight for us is the television series Scrubs. Regular readers know that we are huge fans of the gang at Sacred Heart Hospital. In fact, we've made it a sort of holiday tradition to pay tribute to a show that we think is one of the best in television history, right up there with M*A*S*H and The Simpsons. That's awfully fine company.

One of Scrubs many splendid attributes is its creative use of song and dance. At times, the show seems like a cross between West Side Story and Marcus Welby, M.D. It even produced an episode called "My Musical," which was so stunningly brilliant that it should have captured a truck load of Emmys.

Stylus magazine has produced its "Top Ten Music Moments On NBC's Scrubs," and we can't quarrel with any of their selections. But here are a few of our special favorites:

The episode "My Old Lady" is built around the premise that--excepting the maternity ward and emergency room--one out of three patients who enters a hospital will die there. Three of the show's young interns experience patient deaths, and the episode comes to a climax behind Leonard Cohen's haunting "Hallelujah," as sung by Welsh singer-songwriter John Cale:






In "My Philosophy," a patient expresses her hope that death is like a "big Broadway musical" where "you go out with a real flourish." That inspires one of Scrubs' most memorable imaginary moments, featuring the cast's rendition of "Waiting For My Real Life to Begin" by Colin Hay, formerly of Men At Work:




Not all of the Scrubs song-and-dance numbers are about sadness and death--far from it. One of the show's great gut-busting moments comes in "My Half-Acre," when the Janitor's air band cranks up "More Than a Feeling" by Boston:




Finally, "My Night to Remember" features a superb compilation of Scrubs dance numbers, to "Diner" by Martin Sexton:

Parker Griffith is our MDP: Most Despicable Politician

U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) chose yesterday to announce that he is switching from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

What does the move say about Griffith? It says he is clueless, shallow, dishonest, shortsighted, untrustworthy . . . and we're just getting warmed up.

Perhaps worst of all, we suspect the move says Griffith wants to get ahead of the curve for playing the electoral race card in 2010.

In terms of politics, Griffith's switch is likely to mean virtually zero. As Media Matters reports, Griffith was already a Republican. Writes Jason Linkins at Huffington Post:

Democrats basically lost a party member who pretty reliably voted against their initiatives anyway. Griffith was a "no" vote on Lily Ledbetter, the stimulus package, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the Affordable Health Care For America Act and financial reform legislation. On top of that, Griffith particularly fetishized having a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, which the administration plans to scrap. On his website, Griffith called the missile shield the "best stimulus," mainly "because his district contains the base for Boeing's ground-based missile defense research."

How did Griffith explain his switcheroo? First, he said there wasn't room at the Democratic table for a "pro-business, pro-life, pro-Second Amendment" congressman. Funny, I wasn't aware the Democratic party was trying to inhibit business, life, or the Second Amendment--and that such efforts had started since Griffith's election in 2008. Wrote The Huntsville Times:

(Griffith) said he could no longer be a part of a party that continues to "pursue legislation that is bad for our country ... and drives us further and further into debt."

"Unfortunately, there are those in the Democratic leadership that continue to push an agenda focused on massive new spending, tax increases, bailouts and a health care bill that is bad for our health care system," Griffith said before a living room full of reporters.

Let's see, which party was in charge when the national debt began to explode? (Can we say, "Republicans"?) Who was in charge when financial bailouts started? (Can we say, "Republicans" again?)

See what we mean by clueless? Even Griffith's hometown newspaper isn't buying his story. Opines The Huntsville Times in a piece titled "Parker Griffith's Party Switch Is About Self-Preservation, Not Convictions:"

For 18 years, Bud Cramer straddled both sides of the fence as a conservative Democrat through Republican and Democratic swings in Congress and the White House, resisting pressure to join Republican ranks. Griffith told a packed press conference Tuesday he was voted into office as an "independent conservative" congressman to represent people - not a political party.

That's news to a lot of folks who voted for him and that "D" next to his name. Or those who donated to the Democratic National Convention or helped build his $600,000 war chest.

"As the 111th Congress has progressed, I have become increasingly concerned that the bills and policies pushed by the current Democratic leadership are not good for North Alabama or America and more importantly, they do not represent my values and convictions. While I voted against health care, cap and trade and two huge spending stimulus bills, I now believe that I have to go further and stand with a party that is more in tune with my beliefs and my convictions."

If Griffith is so independent, why not disavow both parties and run as an independent? Now that's conviction.

Parker Griffith obviously is not about conviction. And even though Griffith is an oncologist, one has to wonder about his intelligence. Joining the Republican Party to help fight growing deficits? That's like joining the Oakland Raiders to fight bad football. Becoming a Republican to help protest financial bailouts? Griffith might want to conduct some research to see who initiated the bailouts. It ain't exactly ancient history; it happened in fall 2008.

Alabama blogger Matt Osborne provides an unvarnished look at the real Parker Griffith in a piece titled "Parker Griffith's Christmas Present to Alabama Democrats." Writes Osborne:

At an August town hall in Florence, Alabama, Griffith pandered to the worst elements of the crowd. From death panels to immigration hysteria, he didn't miss a single teabagger talking point.

Hefting H.R. 3200 in the air, he emphasized its dimensions. He openly advocated removing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Minimizing climate change, he drew applause by denouncing Waxman-Markey. He openly ridiculed union leaders and implied that massive deficits magically appeared with the inauguration of Barack Obama.

Speaking of Obama, here's what's really ugly about Griffith's switch: It comes less than a year after our first black president took office--facing a colossal mess left by his Republican predecessor.

Our guess is Griffith thinks President Obama will face a backlash because of his efforts to deal with problems that George W. Bush either created or ignored. And we suspect that Griffith thinks the backlash will be particularly severe because Obama is black.

You've got to hand it to Alabamians. We've never been behind the curve when it comes to playing the racial-fear card. And Parker Griffith isn't about to let us start now.

Fortunately, all Alabamians aren't like Parker Griffith. In fact, outsiders probably would be surprised at how many forward-thinking folks reside in our fine state.

Some have started a Web page called "Send Parker Griffith Home." Jeremy Sherer, a Democratic candidate for Alabama state treasurer, had a thoughtful statement on his campaign Web site.

Perhaps best of all, Griffith's defection has not caused Alabama progressives to lose their sense of humor. Consider this goody from my friend David Walters:

Parker Griffith needs to see a proctologist who can treat him for "opticalrectitus," which is a malady that occurs when the optic nerve comes in contact with the rectal nerve, causing a shitty outlook on life. The problem is that there is no known cure for those who suffer from the Republican strain of this disease. Also, it is not covered in most insurance policies and is not covered in the Senate bill."

Love it.

Refusing to Lie in the Siegelman Case Comes With a High Price

The U.S. Justice Department has extracted a fearsome price from individuals who refused to provide false testimony in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

Just ask former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, who refused to testify falsely against Siegelman. Largely because of that, Scrushy now is serving a federal prison sentence.

Gary White, a former Republican member of the Jefferson County Commission, might be experiencing the same thing. A federal appeals court has reinstated White's convictions on bribery and conspiracy and sent the case back to a lower court for sentencing.

The general public probably has forgotten the circumstances surrounding the White prosecution, largely because Alabama newspapers did not report it. But we have not forgotten it here at Legal Schnauzer. And for that, we can thank the reporting of Harper's Scott Horton, who provided a compelling account of what was taking place behind the scenes in the White case.

Powerful evidence, in the form of an affidavit from White's wife Judy, indicates that federal prosecutors applied extraordinary pressure to get testimony that would fit their version of what transpired between Siegelman and Scrushy.

Judy White's affidavit was available in the court file, but Alabama newspapers never reported on it. Maybe that's because the papers did not want the public to know about the Gestapo-like tactics the Bush Department of Justice was using. Consider this passage from Judy White's sworn statement:

My husband was informed that he had been subpoenaed because his name had come up in connection with a meeting that was supposed to have occurred between Gov. Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy. My husband was instructed by the agents that they wanted him to testify that the meeting took place on a particular and specific date which was stated to him by the agents. My husband informed the agents that he had no idea of the specific date when the meeting took place, that he recalled having been asked to arrange an appointment between Gov. Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy, and that he was present only at the introduction, then departed without participating in or witnessing any specific or detailed conversation between Gov. Siegelman and Mr. Scrushy. . . .

The agents repeatedly and insistently told my husband that they "needed" for the meeting to have occurred at the particular and specific date, and they wanted him to testify that it did. My husband maintained that he could not do so, as he did not know when the meeting occurred.

How intense was the pressure on Gary White? Consider this passage from Judy White's affidavit:

The agents later attempted to coerce a guilty plea from my husband, threatening that if he did not do so, they would add so many charges against him, that he would be convicted just because of the sheer volume of the charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Meadows offered his personal promise that he would have the jury "hating Gary White" and they would convict him, regardless of the evidence.

I have not read transcripts of Gary White's trial, so I cannot speak to the quality of the evidence that led to his conviction. But after reading Judy White's sworn statement about matters that led up to her husband's trial, a reasonable person could ask several questions:

* Did the federal government prosecute Gary White simply because he refused to provide false testimony against Don Siegelman?

* Did the federal government have a legitimate corruption case against Gary White?

* Did federal prosecutors conduct themselves in a lawful manner during the Gary White trial?

The Judy White affidavit is a truly alarming document. And you can check it out, in its entirety, below. After reading it, do you feel confident about the outcomes of federal prosecutions? I sure don't.

Judy White Affidavit

Justice Department Can't Handle the Truth About Siegelman Judge

As the year comes to a close, one of the great justice-related mysteries of 2009 involves the federal prosecutions of former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and former Governor Don Siegelman (D-AL).

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) asked that the case against Stevens be dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct. The DOJ has taken no apparent action on the Siegelman case, even though the misconduct in that prosecution almost certainly was worse than it was in the Stevens case.

In a recent piece at BradBlog, Rebecca Abrahams examines the disconnect between the DOJ's handling of the Stevens case and its behavior in the Siegelman case. The article also is available at Huffington Post. After reading Abrahams' excellent analysis, we can come to only one conclusion: The difference between the two cases is that the Stevens case had an honest judge, and the Siegelman case did not.

The DOJ, under Obama appointee Eric Holder, apparently does not mind rogue prosecutors being exposed--as has happened in the Stevens case. But you cannot get to the bottom of the Siegelman fiasco without exposing the prosecutors--and the federal judge who acted corruptly in the case. (The same holds true for the Paul Minor case in Mississippi.)

Eric Holder seemingly does not have the stomach for such an investigation. He would prefer that Americans continue to cling to the myth that our federal judges are honest.

What would we say to Eric Holder? To borrow a line from Jack Nicholson's classic character in A Few Good Men: "You can't handle the truth!"

Even worse, Holder does not think the American people can handle the truth. And that is where he and the Obama administration have it wrong. The American people can handle the truth about federal judges. In fact, we must know the truth about federal judges--we must look backward toward the evils of the Bush administration--before we can move forward to the brighter future that Obama potentially offers.

Instead we get U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, another Obama appointee, urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear Siegelman's appeal. The former governor, understandably, is baffled. Writes Abrahams:

When asked why he thought Kagan filed the petition, Siegelman responded:

"The people making the decisions are the same people who have been making the decisions all along. We've changed things at the top but the people who are doing the work, certainly doing the work on my case are the same who worked under George Bush and Karl Rove. There's no change. These people with a vested interest in the outcome and they're going to keep fighting for the same results."

Prosecutor Leura Canary had numerous conflicts in the Siegelman case, and e-mails have proven that she did not abide by her recusal in the matter. But Siegelman's team has met nothing but obstruction from the DOJ in its efforts to prove Canary's unlawful actions. Writes Abrahams:

Siegleman's legal team filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain documents from DOJ to determine who instructed Canary to remain on the case. To date the Department has refused to turn over these documents to lawyers as well as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers.

Siegelman says this information could be critical to his appeal:

"For some reason they're stonewalling and this is information that we feel we're entitled to. It could show that Leura Canary had a financial and political conflict or she lied about it."

He adds:

"What I find a complete paradox is that Canary came forward and said she talked to the people at DOJ and said there wasn't a conflict but I'm going to recuse myself anyway. If they actually put that in a memo then there's a serious problem there because there was a financial and political conflict and we proved it. So if someone gave her a green light to go forward after we proved that her husband was a paid consultant working for my opponent than there's someone at justice who should get their pink slip from Eric Holder."

So what's going on with Holder & Co.? Writes Abrahams:

Siegelman says he believes that the Administration appears to be sitting on its hands with regards to reviewing his case and other Democrats who were politically targeted by the Bush Administration.

"I think Holder's well aware of my case and other cases so there's been a decision made not to do anything for what reason I don't know but it's pretty clear they've made a decision not to do anything."

Siegelman says he does not know why the Obama administration has chosen to do nothing about political prosecutions against Democrats. But we can make an educated guess. And it comes directly from Abrahams article:

Two weeks ago the Washington Post reported that U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan named federal prosecutor Henry Schuelke to investigate whether gross prosecutorial misconduct tainted the government's case against Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. At issue is whether prosecutors withheld critical evidence from the defense or whether the case was improperly handled under pressure to meet deadlines.

There you have it: In the Stevens case, the judge is driving the effort to get at the truth. In the Siegelman case, U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, a George W. Bush appointee, is not about to lead any effort to get at the truth. That's because a legitimate investigation would show that Fuller himself was up to his armpits in the sleaze surrounding the Siegelman case.

Is Eric Holder determined to stick his head in the sand and hope the stench emanating from Montgomery, Alabama, blows over? If so, the attorney general is on the wrong path. The stench from the Siegelman case--and from the Paul Minor case next door in Mississippi--is not going away.

Maybe Holder needs to watch A Few Good Men. Maybe then he will remember why it's important to get at the truth: